R.I.P. Harry Harrison 1925-2012

Posted October 1st, 2012 by Farnsworth

Another author of classic-ear science fiction has passed away.Harry Harrison died August 15, 2012 at age 87.

Although Make Room! Make Room! (the basis of the film Soylent Green) was Harrison’s calling card to the world at large, he was already legendary within the sci-fi world. In addition to numerous standalone books (like the recently reissued proto-steampunk novel A Transatlantic Tunnel), he wrote many popular series—including Deathworld and Bill, The Galactic Hero, the latter a parody of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. His most beloved creation, though, was The Stainless Steel Rat: The long-running series, which ran from 1961 to 2010, stars intergalactic grafter “Slippery Jim” DiGriz, and it helped establish the picaresque—which, up to that point, had been mostly the domain of fantasy—to science fiction.

Author Michael Carroll, webmaster of Harrison’s official site, eulogized him in decidedly Harrison-esque fashion: “Rest in peace, my friend. You touched the lives of millions with your exciting adventures, packed with unlikely but always hilarious and thrilling escapades and frequently rather dodgy, but loveable, characters... and, you know, your fiction was pretty damn good too!”